Chicken bald back

[Egluntyne]

Anyone watch this last night?

 

Interesting, but not significantly different to the previously shown series.

 

The wax bath to assist feather plucking was a surprise.

[moochoo]

I didn't realise it was on until I caught the last 5 minutes. Do you know if it'll be repeated?

[Sunshine]

I watched it. I hadn't seen the other programmes that were on a while ago. I found it interesting. I didn't think i would be able to watch them actually being slaughtered, however i did and it wasn't that bad at all. The tukey was very quick. The geese were quite strange though(especially when their legs went up into the air)

 

It should be on bbc i player, if its not repeated on the tv.

[Lesley]

Recorded it but haven't watched it yet.

[..lay a little egg for me]

The most interesting thing I thought was the stats on how sales of free-range turkeys are increasing year-on-year and sales of frozen turkeys are decreasing. Did you note that the footage of factory-farmed birds was courtesy of Bernard Matthews? I wonder how representative of real conditions they were?

[chickencam]

I thought that Paul Kelly came across really well, he has real affection for his birds and treated them with real respect, talking quietly too them and handling them with care. He looked really annoyed when the meat inspector condemmed the meat on his first turkey, a real waste, you would think that they could be used for pet food without a public health risk

 

I wasn't as happy with the treatment of the geese, they looked much more unhappy and the dispatch process took too long. Also I am not sure that I would like to eat the skin after it had been waxed, fortunately I am not too keen on goose.

 

We are collecting our turkey direct from the farm on the way back from visiting relatives on the 23rd. It will be interesting to see where it has been reared. This is the first year for a while that we will have had a white turkey, we have had KellyBronzes for the last few years, but we will not be at home for delivery this year. I will be interested to taste the difference. We have met some of the family who own the farm where we are getting our turkey and they seem like lovely people. We met them at a local food fair and bought some really great sausages from them

 

I am amazed when I watch these programmes at how naive some meat eaters really are, they live in denial

[ChrisP]

I missed it, but thought the last series was really interesting.

 

Off to see if I cant find it on the internet now...

[Janty]

I watched it with my son. I agree that Paul Kelly seems to have a real affection towards his birds and he came across very well. I liked the way he talked about the stun to kill method of killing his turkeys being the most humane.

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

My OH wanted to watch this so we did. I was amazed by two things:

 

One, that Julia Bradbury from a distance looked very much like Channel 4 'yoof' presenter Alex Zane in that ridiculous '20 year-old from Shoreditch' get up. She is a mature woman who presents the very good Railway Walks for goodness' sake! Why is she dressing like that?!

 

Two - people are so naive when it comes to the whole meat process and generic death. We're so underexposed to either these days that folks seem genuinely bewildered that an animal has to die for them to get their meat. I found that laughable - watching people crying, then forgetting all about it as soon as they had their roast to tuck into, but I'm a meat-eating realist.

 

And the whole ' they don't suffer' thing about animal welfare. The animals are about to be murdered! Who are we doing the whole 'we're not cruel really' routine for? The animals or our guilty consciences? It would be like a terrorist ensuring a hostage had daily medicals and massages and then shooting them in the head. To worry to that extent about 'cruelty' when you're killing an animal seems nuts to me. Not that you shouldn't treat animals with some respect, you should, but the whole way they wanted to be seen to be the most compassionate people with regard to animal welfare struck me as ludicrous. Put a goose in a funnelled bucket, kill it and cut it's throat and you're not going to be winning any peace prizes. There's not really a 'humane' way to kill anything, is there? Killing is killing and it's not nice. Can't we just be honest about it?

 

Rant over. It was a useful piece of educational telly.

[Karen & co.]

I watched it with my son, who was bemused that I as a vegie could watch it yet meat eaters in the audience couldn't

 

The Paul Kelly birds seemed to be living the life of Riley

 

Karen x

[chickencam]

I would challenge anyone who thinks that they don't like turkey to try a KellyBronze, They are about twice the price of a good free range bird but they taste amazing, worth every penny for a Christmas feast. Also because they have a more open and lighter bone structure they are pretty quick to cook.

 

They taste like they have lived a good life

[Egluntyne]

I watched it with my son, who was bemused that I as a vegie could watch it yet meat eaters in the audience couldn't

 

Exactly the same scenario at Egluntine Towers.

 

I wanted to slap the vegan. Nothing new or original from her at all. Why was she there?

[Valkyrie]

I guess an alternative opinion. As far as I am concerned (being omnivorous) I prefer the humane methods adopted here. Although I couldn't say whether the rest of the country would be so careful about dispatching thousands of birds. The only thing I wasn't too happy with was the second birds were able to see the fate of the first. Blindfolds at dawn??

[A chickychickychick-ENN!!]

Yeah I thought that too Koojie - it was all 'they've been transported kindly, checked for health, and LOOK AT THAT BIRD HANGING UPSIDE DOWN DEAD! THAT'S GOING TO BE YOU, THAT IS!' Not the nicest thing to for the turkey to witness before its demise!

[Valkyrie]

I was thinking about that last night - they use hoods for falconry to keep the birds calm, so that could be adopted here. Pop the hoods on and then dispatch - if they hear a squawk they might think that someone's foot had been trodden on or something like. After all, when OH electrocuted himself putting lighting on the top landing (he had switched off the downstairs electricity instead by mistake) I thought he was laughing at something and totally ignored him! My bad!

[moochoo]

I managed to catch it on iplayer. Glad I did. It was a very well thought out programme. Paul Kelly did a wonderful job at showing his compassion and respect for the birds that make his livelyhood.

The young vegan lady got right on my nerves. She had nothing constructive to add to the debate. I have vegan friends who would have been far more articulate and prepared than her.

I certainly think these programmes should be shown to kids at high school. Let them make the choice about what they think is ethical and acceptable. They are the next generation of consumers they aught to be demanding good local ethically reared and slaughtered food.

[Egluntyne]

The young vegan lady got right on my nerves. She had nothing constructive to add to the debate. I have vegan friends who would have been far more articulate and prepared than her.

 

I agree. It was right that a vegan voice should have been heard....but one with something useful to offer to the debate and not to just keep repeating that it was all "disgusting".

 

I dabbled with veganism myself for a while, so have a lot of sympathy with their ideals.

 

I did find myself wondering why all table birds are not killed by electrocution rather than just being stunned.